Riot Games has announced it will host a new cross-regional esports event for the Americas ahead of First Stand, League of Legends’ first global event of the 2026 esports calendar.
Announced during the LCS’ 2026 season presentation, the Americas Cup will see the second and third-place teams from the LCS and CBLOL face off at the Riot Games Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. The aim is to maintain a cross-regional rivalry that was established with the LTA last year.
The Americas Cup will be taking place in front of a live audience across a five-day event, featuring a double-elimination bracket between the four teams. Although the schedule has yet to be announced, it’s set to take place following the end of the LCS Lock-In, on March 1st, and before the start of First Stand, which begins on March 16th.
The first round of upper bracket matches will be best-of-three, with all other matches being best-of-five. While there won’t be any prize pool at stake, following its removal across all regional leagues by Riot Games, the Americas Cup will have boot camps on the line.
Following strong results from relocating LTA South teams to Los Angeles in 2025 for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), Riot will provide funding to boot camps in South Korea for this year’s MSI, allowing more teams to train against the world’s best teams.
According to a release, Riot Games will be supporting the third-place LCS team in the Spring split, the second and third-place teams from CBLOL, and the winner of the Americas Cup. If a team qualifies through multiple paths, the additional boot camp slot will be awarded to their league, meaning that up to four LCS teams can head to Korea for a boot camp.
The LCS Season Kicks Off on January 24th
Aside from the return of the LCS and CBLOL branding, the new season will introduce ‘First Selection‘, a revamped system for side selection.
Going forward, teams that previously earned side selection will now choose between which side they want to play on or whether they want to pick first or second in the draft, with the opponents getting the remaining selection. The goal is to add more strategic nuance to the drafting process, following in the footsteps set by the introduction of Fearless Draft in 2025.
